Shopping carts are used extensively for retail shopping. The placement of valuables such as a shopper's purse in such a cart has frequently led to theft of the valuables.
Various proposals for providing a secure area in the cart for containing valuables have been proposed. Often such proposals have included the provision for a lock to secure a compartment within which the valuables are placed. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,292, French No. 2,532,605 and German No. 2,325,685.
With respect to all of the above noted devices there has been little or no commercial acceptance. Apparently the cost and inconvenience of using a lock, with the possible loss of keys and the locks themselves, which were believed necessary to provide a reasonably secure enclosure for purses and the like in order to deter the theft thereof formed a disincentive to acceptance of the devices.
Thus a need has continued to exist for a simple but effective theft deterrent for use in conjunction with shopping carts.